ܦܺܝܠܳܐ [†] pylʾ pilā elephant
Derivatives: ܦܝܼܠ ܬܲܝܫܵܐ pyl tyšʾ pil tayšā wrongly for τραγέλαφος?; ܦܝܼܠܬܵܐ pyltʾ piltā elephant fem.; ܦܝܼܠܵܝܵܐ pylyʾ pilāyā elephantine, of elephants, ivory
The word is already attested in OP pīru- elephant (Kent 1953, 197), *pīruka- (Hinz 1975, 192); cf. MP pīl [pyl] elephant (CPD 68; Nyberg 161); ManMP and ManParth. pyl /pīl/ elephant (Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, 289); NP pīl id. (Steingass 269). However, according to Kent, cit., OP pīru- is a loanword from Akkad. pīru, pīlu (see also Mayrhofer EWA 3, 326). Weryho (1972, 305) believes that Syr. pylʾ is a Semitic word borrowed into Persian: NP pīl < Pahl. pīl ← Syr. pīlā ← Akkad. pīru, pīlu; but if it is true that Old Persian had already borrowed the word from Akkadian, it is not necessary to imagine that Middle Persian needed to borrow the word again from Syriac. LS also considers the word to be of Akkadian origin and quotes many other Semitic forms, such as Arab. fīl, Hebr. pīl etc. The history of the word is very complicated. In Militarev – Kogan 2005, under the Proto-Semitic root *pVl- “a large hoofed animal; elephant (?)”, it is possible to find a detailed analysis of this word, and of all its Semitic representants. In particular, Leonid Kogan (personal communication) observes: “As far as concrete loan hypotheses are concerned, it is indeed not unlikely that Hebr. pīl, Aram. pīlā and especially Arab. fīl are not indigenous in the respective languages (Akkadisms in Hebrew and Aramaic, an Aramaism in Arabic; in each case an Iranian intermediary is probable). Conversely, no reliable foreign source has been suggested for Akkad. pīru / pīlu which is attested from Old Babylonian onwards (categoric statements like ‘Iranian origin coming through Aramaic could also apply to Akkadian pīlu in Leslau 1987, 159 look strange in view of this early date) even though, admittedly, only r-forms are known from early periods” ● pylʾ 1Rg 10, 22; ES 1, 52C; ER 10, 18; MS 2, 70, 5: PsC 170, 13 etc.; J St 16, 10; pyl tyšʾ Bh gr 2, 22, 17; pyltʾ AS 4, 45, 24; KwD 96pu = 2147, 2; KwDW 335, 4; pylyʾ Ez 27, 15 ◆ LS 566b